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HOW TO WIN 


AND 


OTHER VICTORY MESSAGES 


BY 


Vaul TlADER 


HOW TO WIN 

THE HIGH COST of IGNORANCE 

TWO KINDS of STUBBORNNESS 

THE BANQUET 

HABITATION 

THE TOLD LIFE 

FIRE ALSO 

COME TO DINNER 















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* 



HOW TO WIN 

AND 

OTHER VICTORY MESSAGES 


BY 

Paul Trader 

PRICE THIRTY-FIVE CENTS 


PUBLISHED BY 

THE BOOK STALL 
113 FULTON ST. NEW YORK CITY 









COPYRIGHT 1919 
BY 

THE BOOK STALL 


€ 

• « 
• • 
• • « 


©CI.A525691 

May £6 I'otii 


-"V ; - «V \ 


CONTENTS. 

HOW TO WIN . 5 

THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE. 19 

TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS. 29 

THE BANQUET . 39 

HABITATION . 51 

THE TOLD LIFE. 59 

FIRE ALSO. 73 

COME TO DINNER. 83 












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1 





SERMON NO, 1 


HOW TO WIN! 



HOW TO WIN! 

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and the 
power of His might” (Eph. 6:10). 

HIS sentence sounds like the quick, sharp 
words of a captain in the trenches just before 
the boys are ordered over the top. It is a 
moment. It is a last-hour command, and on 
obeying much depends. How much? Just this 
much: Victory, glorious victory, or defeat—awful, 
cowering, sneaking-back defeat. These words are 
not for the one outside the trenches. They are not 
for the unconverted, or the hypocrite. There is much 
said for them and to them in God's Word. Oh, how 
crowded is the Bible with beautiful words to show 
the way of salvation and the way of escape from 
death. Yes, they are beautiful words. No wonder 
the poet cries out: 

“Sing them over again to me, 

Wonderful words of life— 

Let me more of their beauty see, 

Wonderful words of life. 

All so freely given, 

Wooing us to heaven, 

Beautiful words, wonderful words, 

Wonderful words of life.” 

But the words of this text do not deal with life 
or death choice. They are uttered that the Chris¬ 
tian heart might be encouraged in the awful hour of 


tense 


8 


HOW TO WIN! 


conflict; encouraged, yes, and enlightened in the way 
of warfare, that he might finish the fight in victory. 
About these words of the text we might say: 

Sing them over again to me. 

When all about is night; 

Sing them loud in the battle charge, 

Telling me of His might. 

When with bombing is riven 
All the sky of heaven, 

Beautiful way, wonderful way, 

By which I win the fight. 

It is the “how” of winning; the great “how” of 
victory after conversion, with which this text is con¬ 
cerned. And in its words are the last advice before 
the struggle. 

Have you been defeated in your walk and warfare 
as a Christian? Does a map of your Christian life 
show trenches taken by the enemy and sectors of 
land once your own now in his possession ? Can you 
see the list of booty taken by the enemy, and name it 
over? Do you look at this captured treasure with 
tears, yes, bitter tears? There is your heart-peace 
over in his camp, captured maybe in the first great 
conflict. Often you have tried to break through the 
lines and take it. You have offered trade for it. 
You have cried, “Oh, what wouldn’t I give for the 
peace I once enjoyed !” And, by the way, isn’t peace 
beautiful, wonderful? You never knew how really 
valuable it was, did you, until that night charge on 
your heart and you awoke to a new day to find it 
captured? It was so hard to fight again without it. 


HOW TO WIN! 


9 


It seemed all your fighting strength left with it. You 
lay down to rest, but you found it not, and you 
seemed to grow weaker as the days dragged on. I 
say dragged, because we both know that no day 
ever gets up and dances away unless there is peace 
in our hearts. 

You were even tempted to think that you could 
get peace some other way than by victory over the 
enemy, so you remember you quit fighting. You re¬ 
member you quit. You remember how you didn’t 
open up your Bible and get down, on your knees to 
fight it out in prayer and get back your peace! You 
remember how you quit and went back to find 
some substitute for peace. Do you remember now 
just what you substituted? I can remember easily 
how I sought help in friends. But needless to say 
I did not find peace with them ; you know from your 
own experience that I could not find it there. Oh, 
it was in the enemy’s possession, and nothing but a 
great charge of faith could rescue my peace of heart. 
Do you remember how you drew back from the 
battle and believed the enemy’s propaganda talk? 
He sent out word that no peace once lost could ever 
be regained, that you had lost your chance, and that 
Christ was disgusted with your failure and would 
not again fight for you. You believed it, you remem¬ 
ber you did; and you had no strength with which 
to clutch a promise. Your faith was failing fast. 
Then you decided to do without your peace of heart, 


10 


HOW TO WIN! 


and just hold your own. You would not have any 
more offensive warfare. You sank back into a stub¬ 
born, defensive way of living. You said, “I will 
go to church. I will pay my part. I will live the 
best I can, and that’s all that can be expected of 
me.” You looked across at some of your allies in 
the war and saw them taking trench after trench 
and gaining much booty. You felt mad at their 
shouts of victory all along their sector, and you con¬ 
soled yourself by saying, “Well, if they had the hard 
sector I have, they couldn’t do any better than I.” 

You had a caller from the victorious sector one 
day. You sat there complaining of your lot, talking 
of your lost peace, your hard times, your lack of 
strength. You said, you remember, “I felt like quit¬ 
ting.” The victorious visitor wanted to tell you 
how he had won, but you did not enjoy testimony 
meetings. You remember you said to others, “If I 
had victory, I wouldn’t go around testifying about 
it. Folks could see it without my yelling about it.” 

..-•You were so busy testifying about your failure and 
exhibiting your spirit of defeat that you would not 
listen to his testimony about victory and catch his 
spirit of conquest. 

But now hear the text: It does not say, “Be 
strong.” You have no right to put a period where 
God does not put one. His periods and commas are 
all sacred. So you take that period out after 
“strong” and leave that text as God wrote it. He 


HOW TO WIN! 


11 


never expected you to be strong. He knew you had 
no strength. Stop now and see if you believe that. 
When you were converted you remember you saw 
that you were dead in trespasses and sins, that you 
were a lost sinner, and that Jesus was a substitute 
for your lost condition. That He accepted your re¬ 
pentance, your sorrow for your condition and gladly 
offered you pardon and a new life and took the old 
and put it away on His cross, and remembered your 
sin against you no more. Who did this? He did, 
sure. Did you help Him? No. He did it for you 
before you ever sinned, before you were born. Then 
when you saw that you were a sinner you accepted 
what He had done for sinners and His Spirit bore 
witness with your spirit that you were forgiven, sin 
was forgotten, and by Jesus’ work for you you be¬ 
came a son of God, a joint heir with Jesus, your 
Lord. All a free gift. Then you had no strength 
—none. “While we were yet without strength 
Christ died for the ungodly.” Why do you expect 
to be strong now, if you never had any strength 
in the first place? “But,” you say, “I was strong 
for a while after I was saved.” No, you were not. 
That’s why you have failed. You thought you had 
strength, but listen. You had His strength, not 
your own. He was fighting for you and in you and 
with you. The fight was going so good you began 
to look at this strength and be proud of this strength 
and boast about this strength until you thought it 


12 


HOW TO WIN! 
was your strength. You really testified that since 
you were converted you had backbone and strength. 
This greatly grieved the Spirit. You had no right, 
with no strength of your own, to suppose that the 
battles were being won by your strength. Right 
there you made Christ withdraw His strength. 
Right there your locks were cut like Samson's, and 
the strength you thought a real part of yourself was 
suddenly gone. You lost the next battle, and with 
it your peace of heart. “What shall I do now?” you 
say. Let us read the text again prayerfully and 
leave out a period after “strong.” Now it reads, “Be 
strong in the Lord.” Praise God, you see the light 
now. It is the Lord's strength into which you are 
to enter and thus be strong. 

Let us illustrate. Suppose I say to you, “Fly to 
the next city, deliver this envelope to the mayor and 
come to me again.” You would think I had gone 
crazy. But if I say to you, “Get into my flying ma¬ 
chine and we will fly to the next town and deliver 
this envelope to the mayor,” ah, that is far different. 
No, Christ never said “Be strong.” He said, “Get 
into My strength and you will be strong in it.” You 
expect Him to give you His strength. He does not 
do it. He gives you the privilege of entering into 
His strength, and His strength wins the battle. This 
is victory. 

Now, charge the enemies again, and in His 


HOW TO WIN! 


13 


strength win back your peace of heart in the glow 
of victory. I say, win. 

I say, win. Yes, but it takes more than strength 
to win. Strength must be properly used, or there 
will be no victory. 

The text says further, “and in the power of His 
might/’ Now, power is strength in proper action. I 
remember that as a young lad just in long pants I 
had gained a reputation for strength. I had gone 
to work in a small town, or rather to a place where 
there were four small houses, namely, the depot, 
the company store, the water tank, and last, but 
not least, the great blacksmith shop. The govern¬ 
ment, so far as I could see in those days, was run 
by the fellows who gathered about that shop and 
whittled and chawed and spit and philosophized; 
mostly, however, chawed and spit. I knew them all 
by their names. Oh, not their post-office names. I 
mean their blacksmith-shop names. There was 
“Ole Abe.” He looked like Lincoln; and “Ante¬ 
lope”—he could beat anybody on earth or in Mars 
shooting antelope. He studied them and hunted 
them so much he chewed like them. I never saw 
them spit, so I don’t know about that. It’s rather 
humiliating to think that antelopes didn’t spit and 
this fellow did. Then there was “Steerhorn Brown.” 
He got that name at a round-up, where he “took ’em 
by the horns an’ made ’em be good.” He was the 
lifter, and one Saturday afternoon I beat him lift- 


14 


HOW TO WIN! 


ing. Say, I felt manhood jumping from my pores 
and running up the roots of my hair, and growing a 
beard all at once. It only lasted one week. A wreck 
near the town let a train stop at our depot, and a 
traveling man got off and stayed all night. Just be¬ 
fore sundown he came into the blacksmith shop, 
where Congress had assembled for its closing ses¬ 
sion of the week. I was ready to perform in a min¬ 
ute. When he said, “I hear you have some lifters 
around here,” I very modestly, oh, very modestly, 
allowed that I could lift a little. Truth is that I 
thought I could put him on top of all he could lift 
and lift the whole. We started, modest weights at 
first. Soon I lifted my limit, and he laughed at me. 
He put fifty pounds on top of it, pulled up the knees 
of his pants a bit, and, squatting a little above the 
load, lifted all of it easily. He added another hun¬ 
dred. While Congress was watching him lift the last 
hundred I left by the rear exit. My pride was frying 
on the crackle of their laughter and my peace of 
mind had gone up the chimney, blown along by the 
big bellows which the smithy kept at work while the 
others talked and played. I tried to keep out of the 
city, but my duties led me among the four buildings. 
The traveling man called me. “See here,” he said, 
taking me into the shop after the crowd was all 
gone, “don’t go to pieces. You can lift more than 
I can, because you have more strength.” I felt he 
was laughing at me and making a fool out of me. 
But the smithy, a serious, good-hearted friend, had 


HOW TO WIN! 15 

evidently had a talk with him. “Yes, you can,” said 
the smithy. 

“Watch me, lad,” said this Welsh traveling man, 
with a back like an oak wedge. I watched. “See?” 
he said. “You lean over and only use the strength 
of your back, while I use also the big front muscles 
of the big part of my legs. See, I get them into use 
by holding my head straighter than you do and then 
squatting a bit. See?” It seemed easy. I tried a 
few times. Suddenly I caught the idea. I had no 
more strength than before, but I could lift all he had 
lifted. 

Forgive so long an illustration, but I want you to 
see that in this case I had strength but not sufficient 
power. When I learned how to use my strength it 
became power. Now let me help you to see what 
this means to your Christian warfare against the 
world, the flesh and the devil. You admit that Christ 
has strength enough to defeat all your enemies any 
time. You do. That’s fine. You know, then, that 
strength is in Him. How, then, shall His strength 
become power in you? Nearly all Christians will 
say that He has the strength but at the same time 
there is no power in their warfare. 

At Niagara a big column of water standing in a 
large steel tube—let us say it is 12 feet in diameter 
and 50 feet high—is suddenly let loose from a spigot 
at the bottom. Its strength sends out a gushing, 
ripping, pounding, pushing stream of water. All the 


16 


HOW TO WIN! 


weight and gravity pressure in this great column of 
water is thrown into this stream as it gushes forth. 
Here is strength, but to get power from it, power 
that can be used to help folks in all the walks of 
life; to light their paths, their homes, run their cars 
and machinery, and even heat their irons and cook 
their toast and tea, to get power to do this, there 
must be put at the disposal of this stream of strength 
a yielded wheel with paddles to pick up the strength. 
As this wheel is spun, its big axle constructed in va¬ 
rious ways is made to rub copper plates as it spins. 
These copper plates, as they are rubbed, pick up elec¬ 
tricity. Then, without going into scientific detail, 
the strength of this stream is turned into electricity 
or power. 

You are a mechanism called human life; you are 
built to spin, or live—let us call it—by some strength 
operating on your life. Would you be willing to 
draw close to Him and spin as He moves you? You 
say, “I don’t understand electricity. I don’t know 
how it is made.” You stay out of that part of this 
Christian life of power that asks how it’s done. The 
Lord made you, and made you to show forth His 
power in you. You do not know about your making. 
You need but to know that He has the strength, and 
you cannot move yourself. If you know this, you 
will allow His strength to spin your life, nor ask a 
single “how?” 

Our wonderful Lord knows how to turn 


your 


HiOW TO WIN! 


17 


spinning into His plan and purpose better than the 
electrical engineer knows how to direct the current 
through the wires and into machines. Jesus asks 
of you but one thing. Thus, believe that He has 
the strength and yield yourself to it, spinning as His 
strength shall push you. 

Our great lack of victory, then, is not our lack 
of strength, for strength is not expected of us, but 
our lack of yielding to Him and His strength, “To 
will and to do of His own good pleasure.” Yield- 
edness on our part allows His great strength to be¬ 
come power, showing to the world what in and 
through us His strength can do. 

Thus we are “strong in the Lord and the power 
of His might.” The light in the arc in the street 
cannot be proud of itself. It is light in the power 
developed by the strength of that gushing water. 
The disciples had victory at Pentecost because of 
the life that gushed out at Calvary and flowed 
through them with power that day. Yours is not 
to test power or look at the work done. Your part 
is to gaze at the One on Calvary out of the tomb 
in the glory. Your part is to allow Him to fill your 
vision and your life. Yours is to talk to Him, chum 
with Him, praise Him, tell Him all you believe 
about Him, and see what is lovely and glorious and 
wonderful in Him. It is yours to enjoy the touch of 
His hand on your heart, and dream of His soon ap¬ 
pearing. Let nothing move your life but this gush- 


18 


HOW TO WIN! 


ing stream of His love that was opened on Calva¬ 
ry. Let the strong stream of His life play upon 
your heart and mind day and night. Study about 
Him in His Word. Let Him impress you with Him¬ 
self through the Word. Allow His love to move 
upon your heart by believing all that is said about 
Him in His Word. Then! Then! Now, listen. 
Without your being conscious, the world against 
which you rub, because of your spinning under His 
strength, will feel power. Things will happen to 
bring glory to Him that you never planned. Lives 
will be attracted to Him that you little thought 
were even thinking of Him. Love will flow you 
little dreamed had been produced by His strength. 
Victory over the enemy will come without any 
struggle on your part. Plans will be made and you 
will be fitted into your place with no great ability 
of choosing on your part, decisions that will bring 
blessing in their wake will be made for which the 
world will give you credit, but you will know you 
never felt like making any other. 

It is no more you working; it is Him. You are 
gazing, trusting, praising, believing, spinning. He 
is connecting all this up with the outside world and 
work according to His own plan. “Thanks be unto 
God, who giveth us die victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ.” 

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and 
the power of His might.” 


SERMON NO. 2 


THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 









THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 

“Study to shew thyself approved of God” (II Tim. 2:15). 

HE man who is the best posted is in all prob¬ 
ability the best equipped to take advantage of 
opportunity. The man who refuses to study, 
and I am speaking now of the study of the Word of 
God, throws out of his hand the good sword by which 
he is to conquer. Listen to this promise for the man 
who will give thought to the Word of God, “But his 
delight is in the law of the Lord, and in that law 
doth he meditate day and night, and he shall be like 
a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 
forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not 
wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Ps. 

1:2, 3 )- 

It is one thing to meditate. It is quite another 
thing to meditate in the Word of God, just as it is 
one thing to sit in your automobile not knowing the 
road and meditating, and sitting there meditating 
over the good map of the road on your lap. The 
philosophers of our day are meditating and scratch¬ 
ing their heads more than ever before, but they are 
right in the same old tracks which their predeces¬ 
sors occupied years and years ago, and they have no 
explanation of the awful events about them, but *if 
they had been meditating all this time in the Word 



22 THE HIGH COST OF IGNOKANCE 

of God’s prophecy they would be far on the road to 
the truth. We have men to-day who are called edu¬ 
cated who do not know what God’s Word teaches. 
This ignorance is too costly. It costs them their 
souls. 

Rule for Reading 

Let me set down a rule by which you may read the 
Bible. Be sure to memorize this rule which I shall 
give you. Here is my rule for reading the Bible. 
Listen : Just Read The Bible. I mean it very serious¬ 
ly. There is no other way. Perhaps you were ex¬ 
pecting me to give you a short cut. Sit down and 
read the Book of John clear through some time, and 
you will see what I mean. Things will be brought 
to your notice by the Spirit as you read in this way 
that you never dreamed were in the Book. Then, 
as you read on and on through the days, the Spirit 
will compare what you read to-day with something 
you read on another occasion, and the light that will 
flood your soul will delight your soul and surprise 
you. But, best of all, it will equip you for the con¬ 
flict against Satan. Learn a lesson in this regard 
from the farmer. He goes out this summer and cuts 
his hay. The cattle cannot eat it all now, so he stows 
it away in the great mow in the barn. The winter 
days will come on and the snow will blow and gather 
in cold, sweeping drifts about the barn. The old 
farmer will make a path to the barn door through 
the snow, and as he opens the door he will be met 


THE HIGH COST OF IGNOEANCE 23 

by the hungry sounds of a barn full of cattle, sheep 
and horses. He makes his way up into this loft. He 
takes the old pitchfork, and thrusting it deeply into 
the hay he pushes the great, sweet smelling forkfuls 
down through the hole to the mangers below. Soon 
all the hunger calls cease, and a great satisfying 
crunching noise fills the barn. It is so with the 
Bible. You read it, that is, put it away up in your 
mow, and when the cold days of life come on, the 
trial days, the Holy Spirit will come into your mow, 
or mind, and stick the great fork of memory into a 
passage, and poke it down into your heart, and it 
will fill your aching, hungry heart and satisfy you. 
The cost of ignorance about God’s Word at such a 
time as this is too high for any heart to pay. 

An Experience 

I shall never forget when the Lord gave me an ex¬ 
perience which taught me this rule. I was one of ten 
children, and my father was a Methodist preacher. 
Mother had the task every Sunday of lining up, wash¬ 
ing up, and dressing up, this young army to go to 
church. If no one but us came to church, you see, 
father would have a crowd to preach to. The oldest 
ones, of course, could get themselves in shape and 
then start down the line helping the smaller one. 
Mother would commence with the baby and work up. 
When the two met we could start for church. The 
oldest was allowed to march into a pew just ahead of 


24 THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 

the one mother was to occupy and sit next to the 
dividing partition, and then the next in age followed, 
until that pew was packed. The column split and to 
the partition marched the oldest of the second divi¬ 
sion. Mother occupied the end seat of the second 
pew. From this position our loving general com¬ 
manded the army. She never spoke or moved. All 
eyes were front. If anything was wrong she cleared 
her throat in a sweet voice and that cleared up the 
trouble. If that failed there was something at home 
that did succeed later. We were required to put hay 
into our mows during this service. We must at 
least learn the preacher’s text. I remember a hot 
Sunday when the preacher had a very hard, long 
text, and between wishing for a drink and wondering 
when he would stop, I had a hard time getting the 
text learned, but I got it. I put it up there in my 
head and there I left it for many long years. I can¬ 
not remember of ever thinking of it from that day 
until about four years ago. I was going through what 
seemed to me then some deep waters. I could not 
see just why the dear Lord would allow this to 
come upon me, and Satan was trying to make me 
think that the Lord had rather forsaken me. I was 
on my knees asking God for light when suddenly the 
Holy Spirit put memory’s fork into that old text and 
pushed it down into my tested heart. Oh, the joy 
and light it brought. Here it is: “Now, no chasten¬ 
ing for the present seemeth to be joyous, but griev- 


25 


THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 
ous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable 
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised 
thereby.” 

Now, ignorance here as to God’s dealing with me 
would have been very costly. 

I learned, too, that God talked most plainly to us 
through His Word. 

Study 

I have tried to show you that by this method, or 
rule of reading the Bible anyone can become a Bi¬ 
ble student. Do not let the word “study” used in 
this text discourage you. God does not mean here 
what the world means by study. We think of it with 
a headache and hands on each side of our head and 
burning the midnight oil, poring over books. But 
God means something else. “Study to shew yourself 
approved of God” is far from studying to pass the 
examination of men. One is a mental process. God’s 
is a heart process. He says, virtually, read this Word 
that you might learn what kind of a life is pleasing 
to God. You see, this is a heart work. You read it, 
fill your mind with it and when you are in trouble as 
to what God would have you do He calls from your 
mind His Word and corrects you. It prunes you 
that you might bear more fruit. If the mind is filled 
with the Word the Holy Spirit can use it as a stream 
of water with which to cleanse our lives. The Bible 
is God’s language; learn to speak it and the Holy 
Spirit can talk with you as He cannot talk to those 


26 THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 

who know not the Word. He can reprove, rebuke, 
exhort, instruct, enlighten until there conies the con¬ 
sciousness that you are approved of God. 

Sword 

God’s Word is called the Sword of the Spirit. 
Well, if it is, then it will take the Spirit to wield it. 
Have you studied that? Have you meditated that? 
Have you said to yourself, “Here is a Book too big 
for me, a Book whose every word is drawn forth 
from holy men of old by the Holy Spirit, and only 
the Holy Ghost who drew it forth is able to shew it 
forth ? He alone can take it up and use it. This says, 
then, that if you are to handle it, the Holy Spirit 
must be in you to do. I know that many men who do 
not walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but who 
are clever students of it, think they are handling it 
because they are talking systematically about it. But 
when this Sword is handled by the Spirit, you not 
only see its shape and size, and see it flash, but you 
see it cut, you see the results of its cutting ability. 
That is, you feel and see it cut where no human argu¬ 
ment or revelation could reach. “For the Word of 
God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any 
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and mar¬ 
row, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). 

You see, no human could do such work. 


THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 27 

Testing 

When Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost 
after His baptism in Jordan, He went forth to allow 
the Spirit a chance to wield and test this Sword 
against the greatest of enemies. Starved in the flesh, 
famished with hunger, at the very end of all physical 
strength was Jesus, but, oh, hear the whip of power 
as that Sword strikes the enemy. Now hear it come 
again from the scabbard, and this time to pierce. 
Look while it flashes again, to discern the intents 
of the enemy and see him routed and defeated. Oh, 
if you put this Sword into the scabbard of your 
mind, the Holy Spirit will be able to grab it quickly 
and defend you against all your enemies. 

There is no higher approval of God than to the 
man who sees he cannot fight himself but only treas¬ 
ures up the Sword of the Spirit in his mind and turns 
over the fight to the Spirit. 

Approved 

What a great thing it is to see a life upon which has 
been written by God this glorious word, “approved.” 
Enoch had this word written large upon him. 
And he had this said about him in this regard, that 
he “walked with God.” Where can you walk closer 
to God than in His Word? Where can He say more 
wonderful things to you than out of His Word? 
Where can He make known His will more clearly 
than in His Word? Where can you find out what 


28 THE HIGH COST OF IGNORANCE 

kind of life He approves better than in His Word? 
Therefore, study the Word. Walk with the Word 
and with Him. 


SERMON NO. 3 


TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 
























' 
























































































































































































































































































(, 



















TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 

A Tip to Preachers 

“If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” 
(Exod. S3:15). 

AVE you ever made the statement of this text 
to God? It may be that many times your 
stubborn will resisted when He called, but 
this text is far different. This text repeated to God is 
saying that you refuse to walk any path without the 
Lord. Oh, for such heavenly stubbornness to take 
hold of our hearts ! Wouldn’t it be delightful to hear 
the business man crying out to God at the break of 
day, “Lord, I refuse to go down town to-day unless 
You go with me. I refuse to enter into any contract 
or combination unless You enter with me. I refuse 
to go into my office and talk with my business as¬ 
sociates unless You promise to come right along”? 
Do you intend to just refuse to move until you are 
sure the task or path before you is one that will suit 
Him and one in which He will walk with you ? How 
many heart aches this could save! How many cast¬ 
aways would be in His service to-day if this kind of 
stubbornness had been theirs! 

But let us be sure that when He calls us to walk in 
a pathway with Him, we do not allow our usual ways 



32 TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 

of working to become stubbornness or our fear of 
moving out in new ways to produce the same results 
as if real fleshly stubbornness had taken possession 
of us. This is a peculiar kind of stubbornness. Do 
you have it? A dear preacher a few months ago came 
to me with this kind of stubbornness. He loved the 
full Gospel and wanted to see it spread in his city. 
He wouldn’t budge without the Lord. Praise God 
for that. He had spent a night of prayer and came 
from his knees sure that God was saying to him what 
He had said to Moses in this thirty-third chapter of 
Exodus, namely: “See thou sayest unto Me, Bring 
this people up.” “But,” said he, “my brother, I can 
find no way to bring my people up to the help of the 
Lord in getting out the full Gospel to my city. I 
have tried for years. I have done my best, and I 
have come to the conclusion that God wants the 
people brought up, but that I am not the man. I 
feel that I must resign and let a man take my place 
who can bring the people up.” 

My only reply to this was, “Have you never 
thought that maybe God wants to move you—be¬ 
cause of this great call to bring the people up—not 
out of your old harvest field by letting you resign, 
but move you out of your old ways and methods?” 
Then I read from the thirty-third chapter of Exodus, 
to which he had referred, about Bezaleel and the 
helpers God gave to Moses to accomplish what God 
had told Moses to do. 


TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 33 

When I finished, he sat and looked at me until I 
was embarrassed. Then suddenly he went to his 
knees, crying out, “O God, you called Bezaleel and 
filled him with Your Spirit in wisdom, and in under¬ 
standing, and in knowledge, and in all manner of 
workmanship to devise cunning works in gold and 
silver and stone. O God, You state in Your Word 
further that in the hearts of all that were wise- 
hearted You put wisdom to make all that You told 
Moses to make. I get the vision, Lord. You’ve 
called me to do a work and have told me to bring the 
people up, and now I see that I have tried to do it 
all alone, and I haven’t trusted You for, nor looked 
around for, nor prayed for Bezaleels. I have lost 
sight of the fact that You can put wisdom into others 
for their part in all that You have asked to have 
done.” He finished by repeating over and over and 
over again, “O Lord, how I’ve cheated others in not 
training them and giving them a chance to serve 
You!” 

Yes, the dear man had made a failure of his task 
thus far because continuing in his failing methods 
and ways was equal in its effect upon the people to 
being stubborn and refusing to walk the path which 
God had been showing him. It had never occurred 
to him to pray and scheme with God to use the 
greatest number of people possible for the Lord. 
Let me tell you how he went at his same old task 
with a vision of training every human being he could 
get his hands on to be of use to the Lord. 


34 TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 

He had not been home an hour when by telephone 
came the message that one of his men, a grocer, was 
sick. Now ordinarily he would have rushed from 
the house to the grocer’s bedside, but he rushed, 
as he had promised God he would, for others. He 
called up a bashful, backward member who owned 
a Ford car. Sure, the man could come over. He 
would be right over. He called up a young husband 
who had not been out to church much of late. His 
old habits were so strong he had to pray to keep 
from running across the street to the dear old saint 
who alone had always accompanied him on trips to 
bedsides. The three were soon on their way. As 
they went past the corner drug store, a young man, 
the son of a godly mother in the church, came out. 
“Come here,” the preacher yelled in a glad welcome 
way, very new to the young man, and he obeyed. “If 
you don’t mind riding in a Ford, get in.” The young 
fellow gladly got in. The sick man was so aston¬ 
ished at the group of men filing in to see him that 
he forgot all about his fever. He was a man of 
prayer and saw the chance for the Lord at once. He 
reached out an eager hand for each man, and before 
the preacher could talk much he was saying to the 
backward brother, “Thank God, you have come to 
pray for me. Let’s just kneel now. You pray.” 
They all prayed but the young fellow from the drug 
store who was unsaved. It was the first time these 
two men had ever been asked to pray for one of 


TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 35 

God’s sick saints. The Holy Spirit filled the room. 
And when the sick man got through his praying and 
asked for his clothes, new things were done for the 
younger saints, and new faith came sweeping in. At 
the mid-week prayer service the young man from 
the drug store was converted. The preacher walked 
a block toward home with him, and his parting 
words were, “Give your testimony and do some one 
thing that will help get folks to hear the Gospel be¬ 
fore Sunday.” 

Saturday morning the young fellow was at the 
door. “I want to get my job for Jesus done right. 
I asked the boss if I could use the street sign that 
stands on the walk to-day. He said I could have it 
from eight this morning until three o’clock this after¬ 
noon. Write what you want, and I’ll paint it up 
swell like I do the soda fountain signs. Lots of the 
fellows will see it. Get one the young fellows will 
come to hear.” 

The preacher wrote it out. The subject was “The 
Last Dance.” 

“We haven’t enough singing books, my dear, for 
the people,” his wife told him at lunch. “We did 
have plenty, but the folks have taken them home 
and forgotten them.” 

“Something else for somebody to do for Jesus,” 
he replied. 

An hour after lunch he was back in his study with 
a broad smile. He had found the very fellow, a 


36 TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 

youngster of fourteen who was a Sunday School pest. 
He had asked for ten boys by four o’clock. Prompt¬ 
ly at four they were in the yard with two extras. 
The preacher had hot doughnuts for them. Then 
holding up a song book, he said, “How many of 
your folks have a book home like this?” The hands 
all went up. He told his scheme, and off they went 
to get another member’s name from mother, and 
another at each home they visited. Leave it to a 
boy to go after a scheme like this. They were the 
first at Sunday School the next morning, and each 
with his load of books. 

The following week, one of the active church men 
of the city stopped him on the street. “I heard one 
of your kind at a big convention this week.” 

“What do you mean by ‘one of my kind’?” asked 
the preacher. 

“Oh, one of the kind that talks Jesus all the time. 
He gave a great talk. He’s an expert auto man in 
the next town here. He got under my vest. I felt 
like gettin’ religion myself.” 

When he mentioned the name, the preacher knew 
the man, a business man with a great testimony. 

That very afternoon the preacher passed a place 
on the main street where a firm had failed and were 
selling out their goods. He had heard of the failure. 
He stepped inside for a word of cheer to the head 
of the firm. 


TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 37 

“Who’s going to move into this storeroom?” he 
asked in the course of conversation. 

“I don’t know. Nobody for a month anyhow. The 
lease doesn’t expire for another month.” 

“It would make a great place for a meeting,” the 
preacher said more to himself than the man, and was 
surprised to hear him say, “Go as far as you like. 
Rent it or use it. I have never given anything to 
your church. You don’t beg like some do. If it will 
do any good, it’s yours for a month for nothing.” 

When he was on the street again, the Spirit kept 
saying “For a meeting,” “For a meeting.” Now his 
nerve failed him. He walked up a side street talking 
to God. God gave him the courage, and in half an 
hour he was face to face in a magnificent office with 
the prominent church man. The church man was 
answering thus when the preacher had finished his 
story—“Yes, I’ll write a letter and get him here. No, 
I won’t; I’ll get him over long distance. I like your 
nerve; we need a stirring in this town. A noon meet¬ 
ing for men is just the thing, and this fellow knows 
God. Yes sir, that’s the thing. I’ll tell you what I’ll 
do. I’ll settle with the speaker, and I’ll give you $100 
and I’ll ask other fellows for some more to fix up the 
store right, but don’t tell anybody. You run it your 
way. That’s your end.” 

He got the speaker over long distance and fixed the 
dates. 


38 TWO KINDS OF STUBBORNNESS 

This preacher who was going to resign has done 
things for God in the past few months that would 
fill a book. He had yielded his life fully to God many 
years before, but until a few months ago he had never 
yielded his old ways and methods. It’s the same old 
Gospel, but there are many untried ways of getting 
it out, and oh, there are many, many untried folks 
waiting for some one to start them into the harvest 
fields. Let us be stubborn and not go ahead unless 
He goes with us, but let us get the vision that not to 
use and pray out and thrust out the Bezaleels and his 
helpers has an effect on God’s work likened unto 
stubbornness. Do yield your old ways. Remember 
the preacher’s words at the close of the prayer in 
which he yielded his ways to God—“O Lord, how 
I have cheated others in not training them and giving 
them a chance to serve You.” 






















t . 


SERMON NO. 4 


THE BANQUET 











THE BANQUET 

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and His ban¬ 
ner over me was love” (S. of Sol. 2:4). 

m HE best banquets I ever saw were football 
banquets, given by some lover of the uni¬ 
versity to the victorious team. They ate, oh, 
how that crowd of big huskies ate! They didn't 
pick over things and eat a forkful and set it aside. 
They cleaned up everything in sight. They sang the 
songs of victory. They shouted out their praise of 
heroes and they cheered for their university. 

God would love to have men eat of the great ban¬ 
quet of salvation and # life in His Son Jesus Christ 
with great appetite. It is one thing to have the ban¬ 
quet prepared and Jhe doors thrown open. It is 
quite another thing to tempt the appetite. Long 
ago God said : “All things are now ready,” but men 
are so slow in coming. Their very excuses show 
their lack' of appetite. But when they hear the 
shouts and the songs of those who are at the ban¬ 
quet, and see their happy faces, they begin to take 
notice. My brother, remember the world is watch¬ 
ing to see how you enjoy the menu discussed and 
preached about. They are not looking at the food. 
They are watching your face day by day as you eat 


42 THE BANQUET 

of this banquet provided by Jesus. There are so 
many lean souls—joyless souls—these days. They 
are at the banquet, they say, but the world can find 
no banqueting signs about them. They do not seem 
well fed or delighted. 

One of the missionaries on our platform told us 
of a field of labor among a very strange people, and 
very degraded. When they talked to them they 
would not listen. When they sang for them they 
hid in their mud huts. They tried to show them 
trinkets but to no profit. The missionaries found 
that these people did not care for anything they had. 
“Something must attract them,” they argued, “or 
they’ll never even hear our message.” Finally one 
of the missionaries happened to put on a hat, a som¬ 
brero, which a friend had sent him from Texas. He 
walked into the mud hut village with it perched on 
his head. Instantly he had the eyes of the men. 
They followed him, they came back to his house 
with him and watched through the windows as he 
sat down and, with beaming face, praised God with 
his fellow missionaries that at last these men had 
an appetite for something. The chief wanted the 
hat, but the missionary held back and promised to 
have one brought by the next ship for him and his 
men. They watched him as he wrote the letter and 
it was a great day when two men took the letter 
away to the nearest mailing station. Now they 
would listen as he told them of other things while 


THE BANQUET 43 

they anxiously awaited the coming of the hats. At 
last they came: one for each head man. They put 
them on and walked among the people with pride 
swellig in their hearts. When they tried to go into 
their mud huts, kneeling down and crawling 
through the low, small opening, as they had in the 
past, they found they could not get in with the big 
hats on, or if they did they would crush them and, 
worst of all, they would have to take off their hats. 
You have seen your child go to sleep with its new 
Christmas present, a fine doll, and you know how 
the child felt. 

Now came the change. It was either different 
huts or no hats. An hour had not gone by when a 
leading man had changed the size of the hole in his 
hut, and could go in and out without taking his hat 
off. The others soon followed his lead, and before the 
week was over they were building houses like the 
missionaries and listening intently to the Gospel. 

Your joy, your broad-brimmed joy, in Jesus, like 
the missionary’s hat, should be something to make 
this old sin-doped world wake up and to stir them 
to want something that would get them out of their 
mud-holes to accept the truth, and win them to the 
banquet which Jesus has provided. Get the joy 
bells in your heart, and broad-brimmed helmets of 
salvation, and walk among the people, calling them 
to the banquet provided for them, by telling of the 
things Jesus has done for you. Ask God so to feed 


44 


THE BANQUET 
you that you’ll make others hungry. “Blessed are 
they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
for they shall be filled.” 

God said, “Let there be light.” Who cares to eat 
in the dark? Think of a banquet without lights! 
Yet there are thousands of men trying to take the 
Bible and to understand it without that Divine il¬ 
lumination of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said of the 
Holy Spirit what we would say of light. “When He 
is come, He will guide you into all truth.” Here 
are men, critics of the Bible, who don’t know the 
difference between God’s treatment of and plan for 
the Jews before Christ, and those who are born 
again and are now part of the Body of Christ. Then 
they wonder why they don’t enjoy the banquet. 
Oh, the souls who are reaching in the dark for world 
peace when they should be partaking of pardon! 
“Let there be light,” and you will see what God 
is serving in this present course or age. It takes 
Divine light to enable us to sit and eat at a Divine 
banquet, prepared by the Father, the Son and the 
Holy Ghost. 

The banquet is all prepared. God’s plans have all 
been made. God does not have to depend on a crowd 
of ministers in our day to arrange a Gospel for the 
twentieth century. The Gospel of the first century 
is His Gospel to this day and hour. There is only one 
faith spoken of in the Bible. God never says faiths; 
there’s no “s” on it. It is the faith once for all de- 


THE BANQUET 45 

livered to the saints. Abraham walked up to Mount 
Moriah with that same faith and came down with 
more of it; Isaac, too, saw the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world much more clearly after 
they had sacrificed the ram caught in the thicket at 
the side of the altar. They had the same faith we 
have, beloved. Jesus said: “Abraham saw My day 
and was glad.” God doesn’t hold anything in His 
program back from His faithful ones. He said of 
Abraham in Genesis 18:17,18: “Shall I hide from 
Abraham that thing that I do, seeing that Abraham 
shall surely become a great and mighty nation and 
all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” 
Can you not see that in these two verses God opens 
up the whole banquet menu of the nations through 
the Jews and the final blessing when the Jewish 
nation is in its rightful place, and when Jesus sits 
as King on David’s throne? Then He had told Abra¬ 
ham of His first coming and Abraham rejoiced in 
that and in His Blood shed for sin. You see, the Gos¬ 
pel and the truth and the plan and the purpose of 
God in Christ Jesus do net need to be changed in 
our day. It is all fixed. The food is prepared, and 
it is man’s part to come to the feast. 

God’s Word is the menu, the bill of fare, the pro¬ 
gram. The Holy Ghost shows you the courses or 
dispensations. He will turn you to II Timothy 2: 
15 ; “Study to show thyself approved of God, a work¬ 
man that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing 


46 THE- BANQUET 

the Word of truth.” He will bring to you things 
new and old, to make God’s plan for men and for the 
world and for the heavenlies very clear. First, He 
always serves you with the righteousness of Jesus. 
He turns you to Matthew 6:33 in God’s program: 
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His right¬ 
eousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you.” 

Then He begins to tell you of great promises made 
by God and what will result. He turns to Jeremiah 
33 :3, and you read: “Call unto Me and I will an¬ 
swer thee, and show thee great and mighty things 
which thou knowest not.” You take God at His 
Word. You call and you are not disappointed. Then 
He shows you a little rebuke in James 4:2 : “Ye have 
not, because ye ask not.” And you are encouraged 
to dare to ask for all you need. We feed on the 
bounty of Himself, even on His very life. The Spirit 
turns you then to such a wealth of supply that you 
are hardly able to believe your own senses. There 
it is in II Peter 1:2, 3, 4, and you feel ready to shout 
as you believe and read: “Grace and peace be mul¬ 
tiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and 
of Jesus our Lord, according as His Divine power 
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life 
and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that 
hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given 
unto us exceeding gr,eat and precious promises: that 
by these ye might be partakers of the Divine na¬ 
ture.” 


47 


THE BANQUET 

At the banquet which Jesus is giving, there hangs 
a banner of victory. All the rejoicing is because He 
is victor over the world, the flesh and the devil. We 
partake because He has victoriously undertaken for 
us. Many Christians these days are asking about 
victory. They want to be overcomers. Yes, He con¬ 
quered all our foes: 

I have overcome for thee, 

Thou shalt overcome through Me; 

Fight no more with broken sword, 

Trust, oh, trust thy conquering Lord. 

Oh, how few see that their struggles against the 
self-life are useless, and turn from it as a broken 
sword and live in Him, and walk in the Spirit. You 
do not have to fail; there is victory in Him. How 
wonderful it would be if, just now, you would give 
up and give over the battle to Him and then trust 
Him to undertake for you henceforth. 

Mrs. Pemroy fought this battle out at a little tent 
meeting and God showed her His ability by the way 
her own life had been spent. She owned a millinery 
store in a small town in Missouri, where she had 
been born and raised. Her father lost his business 
and she was forced to do something to make a living. 
She was very proud, and since she had been forced 
into business she had set her mark high and intended 
to be a great success in millinery. Mr. Henry Pem¬ 
roy owned a great deal of coal land and had become 
very wealthy. He had told her of his love and she 
did love him, but her pride would not let her drop the 


48 THE- BANQUET 

millinery business until she had made a great suc¬ 
cess. She would say to herself that the gossips about 
the town would say she couldn’t make a success of 
business and had to marry. Henry Pemroy waited 
around for some seven years while she struggled and 
wore herself down. He kept telling her that he 
could run a hundred millinery shops for her if she 
wanted them. Success was as far away at the end 
of the seventh year as at the first. So, on a Christ¬ 
mas day, while Henry pleaded, she threw herself in 
his arms and sobbed it out, and Henry became her 
husband. Henry had confided in the evangelist who 
was running the tent meetings. He had known him 
for many years. Mrs. Pemroy sat on the back seat 
listening as the preacher told of Jesus as our victor. 
She was a Christian, but victory was far from her 
life. To give up and let the Holy Spirit run her life 
was not what she wanted to do. She was having the 
same fight with God’s blessed Holy Spirit that she 
had gone through with Henry. She had her plans 
made and she was working them with a high hand. 
She was the wealthy Mrs. Henry Pemroy and she 
wanted folks to know it. She had some great schemes 
to make that name famous. But God’s Spirit pleaded 
for a full right of way and she was in the thick of 
the fight and the people were singing and many were 
going to the altar as the evangelist reached her side. 
They greeted each other and the evangelist said: 
“Are you glad you dropped the millinery business 
and let Henry run things, Mrs. Pemroy?” 


49 


THE BANQUET 

“Yes, I am,” was her answer. 

“Then,” said the evangelist, “you love Jesus and 
He wants you to throw up these proud spirit plans 
of yours and let Him be your life.” She almost ran 
to the altar and there she sobbed it out. And she 
arose, a yielded soul, ready to do of the Spirit’s good 
pleasure. Her life became a refuge for many a storm- 
tossed soul and she led them to the Saviour, who 
was indeed her very life. 

“And the greatest of these is love.” Divine love; 
this is not just human love. This is God’s great 
warm heart beating for us. The heart flow of Him 
who went to Calvary is love. Perfect love, that is 
the victory. Perfect love casteth out all fear. All 
God’s plan of redemption is the unfolding of His 
great love, and it will be His great love forever that 
will make glorious eternal life for us. 

The Illinois State Penitentiary is at Joliet. My 
good friend Dr. Brown visits the prisoners there. 
One case especially drew his attention, and while we 
were sitting waiting for meeting time the other day, 
he told me of it. The case was that of a young boy, 
who was not overly bright, and crippled or withered 
in his hand and foot, and his poor face anything but 
pleasant to look upon. He had been sent to the peni¬ 
tentiary for stealing chickens and shipping them 
away. The boy hadn’t been in the prison long when 
the father was sent up for a precisely similar crime. 
The father made but one request of the judge who 


50 THE BANQUET 

sentenced him and that was that he might be put in 
the same cell with his boy. The warden granted his 
request. Dr. Brown found them there in the cell to¬ 
gether as happy as could be. The father told Mr. 
Brown how much he loved the boy. And Brown pro¬ 
ceeded to tell the father that love like that was 
worthless when they were chums in crime—when 
he had to stop talking. The father was protesting. 

“Oh, sir,” said the old man, “wait a minute. I’m 
no criminal, sir. I just had to be near my boy and 
that’s the only way I could think of getting next to 
him, I love him. I couldn’t sleep at night without 
him. I couldn’t think of him being locked up here 
all alone. So, well, I’m here. This is my boy.” And 
he hugged that ill-shaped boy to his heart and com¬ 
forted him. 

The sinless Jesus came into this old penitentiary 
of a world and to share our cell and to take our crime 
upon Himself. “He brought me to the banqueting 
house. His banner over me was love!” Oh, let Him 
bring you, too. 



SERMON NO. 5 


HABITATION 




HABITATION 


“Christ in me the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). 

T is not eradication nor suppression, not iden¬ 
tification but habitation which is our hope. 
He, the glorious Indweller, is “made unto us 
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and re¬ 
demption.” Is there a struggle within or without? 
Turn it over to Him. “He is able. ,, 

The Human Heart 

We talk much of human nature. We depict it on 
the stage. We write it out in our literature. We 
spread it on the screen in the movies. We must 
reckon with it in business life. The conductor, the 
elevator man, the clerk, the boss, the promoter, the 
trader, must watch and reckon human nature into 
his task. But what must we as Christians do with 
human nature? We must if it is our own human 
nature, if we would obey God’s Word in the problem, 
reckon it a dead thing, settled with upon His cross, 
and turn for our life to Himself, risen and conquer¬ 
ing, holy and glorified. “Ye are dead and your life 
is hid with Christ in God.” Oh, believe God for the 
solution of the struggle between the desires of your 
flesh and Christ. 

How shall I conduct myself that Christ may be 



54 HABITATION 

glorified? Reckon myself a dead man, thus saying 

“amen” to the work of His cross. 

But when my pride would pull me, and envy 
clutch me, how shall I loose their hold? Reckon 
myself a dead man and point to His cross for proof. 
Reckon that ’twas I who died that day when He died 
for me. 

He hid my old life by Himself becoming sin for 
me on the cross. He hid me in Himself and arose 
from the dead. Therefore, since I am risen in Him, 
I must seek those things above, where He is seated. 
He is seated there in the glory with victory, holiness 
and power. Believe that He is seated within you 
with glory, victory, holiness and power. 

A Dream 

Let us look for illustration at a dream. Here it 
is. I am walking down a beautiful shady street, in 
mid-afternoon, past a most wonderful mansion. Sud¬ 
denly the door swings open and the butler steps out 
and coming down the steps greets me by saying: 
“Glad to see you, sir; step right in.” “But, man,” I 
answer puzzled, “I know no one here. How have 
I the right to step in?” “Someone must step in. 
This house must be occupied and used, sir,” he cries 
out in pleading tones. “A house is made for use. 
Come in and use it.” 

I enter, while the butler bows with salaam, and 
shows me about the place. We enter a great parlor 
with all that goes to make up a parlor, in full and 


HABITATION 55 

rich display. We pass on to a great green-house. 
We enter a room of palms and Southern trees and 
ferns. The mossy beds over the rocks are dripping 
with water, and canaries sing in the hidden nooks. 
Then into an orchid house we go to see the gorgeous 
open throats streaked with crimson and others with 
gold and others radiant in beauty. Here they hang 
in mid-air, requiring no dirt in order to live. Moisture 
and air are all they need. We could call them “Vic¬ 
torious Christian” flowers, they are in the earth, but 
not of it. 

My guide leads me on until the green-houses are 
finished and I am conducted into the art gallery. I 
stand there in amazement before the strokes and 
color combinations of genius. 

Called to Dinner 

The dinner bell calls me below and I hasten by 
special guide to the wonderful dining room. “Any¬ 
thing you want?” the waiter answers, in reply to my 
questioning look at the full menu. “Anything?” 
“Yes,” he answers, smiling. “Anything you see 
there and want I will bring you.” I test the entreaty 
and find the menu become a reality before me. 

From dinner I am conducted to the library. Oh, 
the books, books, books! And a librarian to help 
me find all I want. I read until my head drops, and 
an attendant informs me that he will show me to my 
bed room. Oh, such a bed. I sleep with dreams in 
a dream coming to me. The morning is announced 


56 HABITATION 

to me by an orchestra playing outside my door. 
Think of it—music by which to get up. And then 
the bath room and the loveliest bath. 

Next I hear the harmonious songs announcing 
breakfast. After breakfast I say to the waiter, “Well, 
I must go to the office. I suppose an automobile of 
any make is mine to ride in, just for the asking.” 
And now stop your breath—and listen to his answer, 
and never forget it. “My dear sir, you may have 
any car you please. But why use a car? Do you 
see that big golden button in the wall at your right! 
All you need to do is to push it and the whole house 
will move off and carry you with it.” 

The Application 

Now you think that a wild dream. No! No! No! 
It is an exact picture of you and your personality; 
body, soul and spirit, emotion, intellect and will. 
You, the great creation of God, and you have invited 
in the devil through your fleshly desire. He comes 
in to be waited on and guided about, when pride, 
the butler part of the flesh life, has his way, and lust, 
the artist, has his turn. “Come in,” they say, and 
the devil needs but to push the golden button called 
your will and the whole house obeys and carries him 
about. 

Over to Him 

But if you reckon all the flesh to be dead and yield 
to Jesus the full control. He will push the button 


HABITATION 


57 


and you carry Him about. He becomes your life, 
for He becomes boss of your servants. You have 
yielded your members to Him as instruments of 
righteousness unto true holiness. Oh, will you let 
Him have His full way and His fullness is yours? 
Why need I worry about the servants (my mem¬ 
bers)? No, I turn them over to Him and the gold 
button I put beneath His hand. I move as He push¬ 
es it. His will and mine are one. He is the One. 

He says: “My sheep hear My voice/’ This “al¬ 
together lovely” One has come in His fullness to 
abide. He has taken His habitation, Hallelujah! 

“Christ in me, the hope of glory.” 


( 


SERMON NO, 6 



THE TOLD LIFE 



THE TOLD LIFE 


“And it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 
9:6). 


^ HO wants to do what they are told to do? Oh, 
the bitter battles that have been fought over 
just “minding/” from childhood on up the 
ladder of years. The very essence of sin is seeking 
our own way. “We all like sheep have gone astray. 
We have turned every one to his own way.” 


The statement of this text is the words of Jesus 
to Saul of Tarsus, as He halted him in his great cam¬ 
paign of killing Christians. Jesus not only halted 
him that day on the road to Damascus and cut short 
the job he had in hand, but He changed the whole 
flow of his life. Until then it centered in what Paul 
wanted to do. In that blaze of light Paul asks: 
“What wilt Thou have me to do, Lord?” and Jesus 
answers, “It shall be told thee what thou must do.” 
Then Paul starts to lead the “told life.” Oh, what a 
glorious life; doing what He tells us to do; “led of 
the Spirit.” 

It is a peculiar life, a misunderstood life, to the 
world. It is not supposed to suit the world, but 
Him, and the world hates Him. The world does its 
own will. He came to do the Father’s will and He 
asks us to do His will, not ours or the world’s. “It 



62 THE TOLD LIFE 

shall be told thee.” Have you found this sweet life 

of the sheep with your Shepherd ? 

Consider the great change. Here was this fiery, 
talented, dynamic leader of a great killing campaign, 
suddenly surrendering to the very One whose name 
he hated and whose followers he was destroying. 
Can there be any greater sight than the transforma¬ 
tion of a world life to a “told life”? 

Sometimes in my imagination I can picture Saul 
standing as a young orator before the chief priests 
and elders and leaders, and arguing against Chris¬ 
tianity and rousing the ranks to “carry on” and over¬ 
throw this new enemy to their religion. I can see 
the admiring glances of the old heads and the en¬ 
thusiastic cheers of the younger set, culminating in 
choosing Saul as leader of the whole movement or 
campaign. It is a great hour, from a human stand¬ 
point, when a young leader breaks into the lime 
light. 

I remember a convention of the democratic party, 
years ago when a great issue was before the Amer¬ 
ican people. We had heard much of a certain silver- 
tongued orator of the West. I was in the city of the 
convention. I knew the editor of the leading paper, 
and the paper was full of praise of this new leader. 
I had never seen him. The convention hall was 
packed; the hour was tense. I had a seat in the 
newspaper box. Suddenly there was a little stir on 
the side of the stage. The editor punched me and 


THE TOLD LIFE 


63 


said, “He is coming.” Soon the house was in an 
uproar. A black-haired young man, well-built, mag¬ 
netic, with eagles eyes and nose and a mouth broad 
enough to speak two languages at once, walked in— 
and I saw William Jennings Bryan for the first time. 

Imagine this great young leader Saul in his prime. 
Then think of him struck down on the road to Da¬ 
mascus, and these words the essence of his after life: 
“It shall be told thee what thou shalt do.” He has 
lost his life by a look at Jesus, but he has found a 
life in Jesus that is so glorious, he counts all as dross 
but this new life. 

A Vision 

Saul is now Paul and leading the told life because 
of this vision. The appearance of Jesus on the road 
to Damascus was the culmination of a work by the 
Spirit on Saul’s heart from the time he started to 
persecute the Christians. See him standing outside 
a home, where within the little circle is kneeling, 
praying and praising. He breaks up the meeting. 
There is no scare, there is no fear, there is no panic. 
These Christians take the rough treatment of his 
men with praises on their lips to God. They are put 
in jail, and as Saul and his men walk away, the sweet 
hymns coming through the bars linger in their ears. 
They hear the songs in their dreams. They see their 
bright, happy faces. They remember their words. 
Saul feels the walls of his arguments coming down 
like melting snow before a hot, glorious sun. They, 


64 


THE TOLD LIFE 


like the sun, have offered no dispute, no argument, 
but have let their light shine. They have esteemed 
the reproaches of men as nothing, compared to abid¬ 
ing in Jesus, and have shed forth His life and love. 
They were leading the “told life. ,y He had com¬ 
manded them to walk as sheep among wolves, and 
such a light and life was beating down all the stub¬ 
born resistance of Saul’s heart. 

Now Saul finds himself the leader of a great mul¬ 
titude, and at their center stands a young man named 
Stephen. Look at Stephen’s face—even all the ene¬ 
mies of Christians, and Saul himself, admit that his 
face shone like an angel’s. He is speaking. The 
Jews are craning their necks to catch his words. 
Such mastery of words, such sweep of Jewish his¬ 
tory, they have not heard from any of their own 
leaders. Even their young orator Saul could not 
sway a crowd as this young man is swaying them. 
But stop! The young man has caught them. He 
has them in a trap. He is accusing them now, and 
the jaws of truth are shutting in on them. Hear his 
cutting words of awful truth to this mob of men: 
“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and 
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your 
fathers did, so do ye.” 

You say, “Why does he dare so to talk to these 
men ? They will kill him for this!” Oh ! He is lead¬ 
ing the “told life.” Jesus said, “He that loveth his 
life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for My 


THE TOLD LIFE 


65 


sake shall keep it unto life eternal.” Stephen is 
minding God, and must go on with the truth. 

He charges now still closer to their awful crime. 
He cries, “Which of the prophets have not your fa¬ 
thers persecuted? And they have slain them which 
shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of 
whom ye have been now the betrayers and mur¬ 
derers.” Hear their howl. “When they heard these 
things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed 
on him with their teeth.” His end is near. The 
truth has stung them to violence. The natural heart 
stands no correction. Are you willing to be cor¬ 
rected or criticised without planning vengeance? 
Oh, let the “Told Life” be yours. 

An Exhibit 

Stephen, in the hour of their rage and hate, mounts 
up to the pinnacle of his Christian experience. Jesus 
is more than all their hatred, all the anger. It is a 
great hour for these people to see Jesus in this man, if 
they only will. It is a great opportunity to see ex¬ 
hibited before them an example of the reality of Jesus 
and His sustaining grace, but they will not see. Saul 
is seeing, though if you were to step up to him there 
now and ask him, he would say he saw nothing. But 
his eyes are riveted on the face of this young follower 
of Jesus, while he stands there all aglow with joy, 
and looking up into heaven. 

Stop! The roar is quiet a minute. Hear again 
what Stephen is saying, as he gazes upward. “Be- 


66 


THE TOLD LIFE 


hold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man 
standing on the right hand of God.” Look at Saul— 
he is not moving. But the crowd is. “Then they 
cried out with loud voice, and stopped their ears, 
and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out 
of the city and stoned him.” Then the witnesses 
laid down their clothes at Saul’s feet. He has not 
moved. He is listening. Stephen is dying. The 
stones have done their deadly work. Look, Stephen 
is kneeling. The stones are flying. It is the last 
statement. Saul must hear this, for he knows most 
men will speak truth just before they die. Listen: 
Stephen is calling this Jesus, who walked around 
among them, “Lord.” He is calling Him God. Hear 
the words—Saul hears them; they sting into his 
heart like fire. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He 
is dead. 

The words haunt Saul every hour. “Lord Jesus, 
Lord Jesus.” Here is a man before Saul’s very eyes, 
dying in the faith that Jesus is Lord. He declares 
he saw Him at the right hand of God. He has said 
a great thing, this Stephen, but oh, he has exhibited 
a wonderful thing. Death has no fears for him. 
Why? Because Jesus is “Lord Jesus.” How could 
he die so gladly? Because Jesus was “Lord Jesus” 
and life to Stephen. The “told life” was the easy 
life for Stephen, for it led him immediately into the 
presence of his “Lord Jesus.” 

The storm is on. Saul tries to throw off the awful 
conviction by taking a larger task. The storm goes 


THE TOLD LIFE 67 

on. The lightning of God strikes. Saul is struck 
down, and Paul arises, saying “What wilt Thou 
have me to do, ‘Lord Jesus’?” And the answer 
comes, as it comes to every soul who hungers to 
wholly follow the Lord: “It shall be told thee what 
thou must do.” 

A Reason 

To lead such a life seems unreasonable to the 
world, for they do not see the One who is telling 
what to do. When we were at St. Louis in a meet¬ 
ing, we went out to hold a meeting for the soldier 
boys in the great camp at Jefferson Barracks. I met 
one lad who seemed very much dejected. “Howdy,” 
I said to him. A grunt. “Are you sick?” “No sir.” 
“How do you like being a soldier?” I ventured. “I 
ain’t havin’ no fun at it,” he said, looking up at last. 
“I ain’t got no fuss with nobody. I don’t under¬ 
stand this soldier business. I’d a heap rather be 
home.” 

I had to go on into the service. The next morning 
Sousa’s Band arrived early in St. Louis. They came 
marching from the train before the city was awake. 
I was awakened by the music. I stuck my head out 
of the window on the fifth floor. Such a sight! What 
a splendid lot of men, all dressed in white, blowing 
away each one like a rooster crowing in the early 
morning and walking with rooster steps at the same 
time. They were being led by “the peacock of the 


68 


THE TOLD LIFE 


Navy,” a fine young fellow who swung his silver 
stick, sparkling in the early morning sun, and 
stepped along never touching his heels to the ground. 
Heads were out of windows, and cheers were com¬ 
ing from all the stories of the buildings. Then came 
the soldiers. They were coming to town to boom 
things for the Liberty Loan. All morning the boom¬ 
ing went on, and climaxed at noon. Thousands stood 
and listened in the great open square to the speeches, 
dealing with every aspect of the war. 

That afternoon we went to the camp again. I 
saw my soldier boy—but, oh the change! His head 
was up, his shoulders back; he was beaming. “What 
ho!” I said, “You’ve changed some, boy. How so?” 

“Oh, Mister,” he said, “I was in the march and 
listened to the speeches. I know now what it’s all 
about, and I’m glad I’m a soldier. I’m willin’ to 
take whatever comes.” 

Yes. Quite a change. 

Saul persecuted Christians. 

Paul got up from the road, after the vision, to lead 
a “told life.” 

Oh, beloved, is He real to you? Do you know 
Him? Have you been alone with Him until He has 
revealed Himself? He will surely speak. He says. 
“My sheep hear My voice.” Are you wondering 
what to do next? Go alone and ask Him. “It shall 
be told thee what thou shalt do.” 


THE TOLD LIFE 


69 


Are all the doors closed; are you tied up? Go 
alone, and He will talk to you. Wait, wait for Him. 
Not because He is too busy to talk to you, but be¬ 
cause you are not ready to hear Him speak. As you 
wait, He will search you and get you ready. Per¬ 
haps you are on a Damascus Road, bent on your 
own task. He is “Lord Jesus.” It will pay to wait 
for orders. 

Under Orders 

See Paul out there on the dump heap at Lystra. 
Stand with his friends around him softly praying. 
He has been mocked out, dragged out of the city. He 
was only telling folks about Jesus. Look, he is com¬ 
ing to! He is getting up. He is speaking to his 
companions. He is on his feet and is making his 
way straight back into the city. Go stop him and 
tell him to go to some place where they want him. 
Look, there are tears in his eyes. Hear him say, 
“There is no way of life for these dear hearts but 
through Jesus. I don't blame them for trying to 
kill me. I did the same thing once. They are blind. 
Would God they could see Jesus!” 

Oh, the compassion of the “told life.” “Go and 
tell them I love,” says Jesus to the yielded heart. 
Yes, and more—oh, so much more. He says, “Go 
and show them that I love them.” See him again 
in the ship. Down there in the hold you'll find him, 
where it’s smelly and dark and the rats are gnawing 
at his sandals while he prays. For long he stays 


70 


THE TOLD LIFE 


there, while the waves are tossing the ship and the 
men, white-faced and sick, see no hope upon the 
deep. Suddenly Paul is standing among them speak¬ 
ing. “There stood by me this night the angel of 
God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, ‘Fear 
not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar, and 
lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee/ 
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, 
that it shall be even as it was told me.” 

Wonderful testimony, after all these hardships 
and sufferings since he left Damascus road, to end 
up after this storm, still confident in the “told life.” 
Hear Paul shout it, and shout it with him: “I be¬ 
lieve God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” 

His Coming 

He has told us He is coming to receive us unto 
Himself, that where He is, there we may be also. 
Paul says, “For the Ford Himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch¬ 
angel and with the trump of God; and the dead in 
Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and 
remain shall be caught up together with them in 
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall 
we ever be with the Lord.” 

Will we believe with a glowing hope what He has 
told us? He says, “Watch.” Will we do it? Will 
we lead this part faithfully, of the “told life” ? The 
reward is sure, for He is true. 


THE TOLD LIFE 


71 


You remember the story of Gregory; how because 
of his love for Margaret he was disinherited; how 
he left his highland home, banished. But before he 
went, he met Margaret down at the foot of the great 
cliff, where at high tide its mossy rocks meet the 
ocean. They told again their love, while the night 
hid them from view, and Gregory pushed out in his 
little boat to the great passenger ship anchored in 
the harbor. She climbed the cliff in the dark and 
on to her lonely home, saying over between her 
tears, his last words, “I’ll be back for you, Mar¬ 
garet.” He was to go to another country and there 
make provision for her, and come again for her. He 
could never again step foot upon the soil of his birth 
land, so she was to hang out a lantern secretly every 
night and wait near the lantern on the cliff for him, 
as close to the water’s edge as she could safely go. 

The nights were many, but the lantern hung each 
night somewhere along the coast near the old home 
spot and their trysting place. Her strange actions, 
her nightly watchings, cost her the home she loved. 
The villagers passed her by as an evil night prowler. 
The women let her have their tongues singly and 
combined, but she kept her vigil and guarded her 
secret. Sleeping there one night with her great coat 
around her, she was awakened by the calling of her 
own name. She sat up and listened. Soon she heard 
the sound of dipping oars. “Margaret!” came the 
cry. “Gregory !” swiftly flew the answer. Down on 


72 


t 


THE TOLD LIFE 
the sands he took her in his great arms and carried 
her through the shallow water into his little boat, 
and then into the great ship to go to be with him in 
his new-found home. 

Oh, He—our “LORD JESUS” will come again. 
Oft I hear it seems the dipping oars. Oh, come, 
“Lord Jesus”! Until then, “It shall be told thee 
what thou shalt do.” 


SERMON NO. 7 


FIRE ALSO 




FIRE ALSO 

“And He shall baptize yon with the Holy Ghost and with 
fire” (Matt. 3:11). 

W 1 ""^ HEN thinking of man’s problems remember 
that you will never comprehend God’s deal- 
__ a ings in them unless you start with the fact 
that man has sinned, by taking his own way and 
refusing to obey the commands of God. Yes, man 
broke off the relations between himself and God. 
The curse that followed this broken relation left 
man to shift for himself. Before this relation of 
Father and child was broken, all provision for man’s 
welfare was made by God. Man needed no clothes 
for God somehow supplied him. His fall or sin left 
him unclothed in a cold world to shift for himself. 
This shifting for himself men have chosen to call 
evolution. We grant that he had to learn to shift 
for himself and that in shifting he has come from the 
simple to the complex in civilization, but that this 
shifting went on previous to his sin the Bible de¬ 
nies. He was cared for by God until sin came. We 
know every step from the simple to the complex 
since the fall, that is: man’s progress in civilization 
has been marked by fire and its uses. Tell us how 
any tribe uses fire and we can tell their state of civ- 



76 


FIRE ALSO 


ilization. It has to do with clothing, food, housing, 
invention, transportation, education, and manufac¬ 
ture. 

Mystery 

This strange thing called fire has made great 
changes in the conditions under which men live. Fire 
is a mystery. Its laws can be told, but why the 
phenomena attending its exist, man does not know. 
One might define a flame as “Gas temporarily lum¬ 
inous because of chemical action” but this would 
have to be qualified greatly or it could easily be con¬ 
tradicted for there are flames which are not lumi¬ 
nous. The why of heat attending fire is also a 
mystery even though its amount may be measured. 
Yet this mysterious phenomena called fire plays a 
great part in the life of man. It seems strange at 
first hearing, to promise fire with the Holy Ghost. 
One would think enough had been said when it was 
stated “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” 
Then why “FIRE ALSO”? 

We speak of fire as combustion. We mean gen¬ 
erally that one substance is uniting with another in 
chemical action and that while this is going on there 
is heat and light attending the action. When the 
Holy Ghost was uniting with believers on the day 
of Pentecost the symbol of this uniting used by God 
was the symbol of fire which sat in two-tongued 
flames on each of them. 


FIRE ALSO 77 

New Life 

There is to be a new life for these believers of 
power and service to God. It is not to be the life 
of the Holy Ghost alone nor of the individual alone, 
but a combined life. When two gases are united we 
have fire and its phenomena. Now God is showing 
by the fire symbol that when the Holy Ghost unites 
with the believer there is to be an attending spiritual 
phenomena symbolized by fire, which is light and 
heat. Therefore, it is not only the coming of the 
Holy Ghost but “fire also.” 

This spiritual phenomena represented by fire is 
what the world will see and sense and say “a com¬ 
bination has taken place.” These one hundred and 
twenty who were baptized with the Holy Ghost im¬ 
mediately began to manifest their fire. Their hearts 
were warm and then hot and then all aglow with the 
reality of the combination. Their tongues and hearts 
were loosed to tell out the wonderful things of God 
so that everyone around heard them talking about 
what wonderful things God had done. It was a liv¬ 
ing, human and Divine flame sparkling and crackling 
the hot love tidings of God to a lost world. Oh, 
what a lack of this hot love fire there is to-day! Oh, 
for the fire ! Remember “Fire also !” 

False Fire 

There is man-made enthusiasm and this is good, 
but oh it is nothing like this living fire. Man has 


78 


FIRE ALSO 


worked hard to produce his fire but this is not by 
works but by yielding. Man can produce fire by 
friction, by flint or refraction of the sun’s rays. I 
think I have seen in my boyhood as high as a dozen 
different methods for fire making used by the In¬ 
dians. The favorite with me was the bent stick 
about two feet long with its end poked into a small 
dent and the dent smeared with some good pitch. 
Then the other end was put into a dent in a board 
and the board held against the breast. The bent 
stick was then turned very fast as you would turn 
the handle of an augur until the fire was produced by 
friction. I have seen people trying just that hard to 
produce this heavenly fire and puzzling their heads 
to invent some new way of enthusiasm and church 
success. Many churches are revolving very fast in 
the small dent they have made in their community, 
with lots of enthusiasm, or false fire, but not with 
the “Fire also” kind. This fire of which I speak 
comes from a wholly yielded life. Christ has given 
all to us. See Him giving Himself. 

True Fire 

Watch Him as the people crowd about. He heals. 
He cheers. He looses from devils. Giving. Giving. 
GIVING HIMSELF. He is God. “All things were 
made for Him and by Him and without Him was 
not anything made that was made” yet with this 
truth about Him in your mind see Him there naked 
like a slave washing His disciples’ feet. No man 


FIEE ALSO 


79 


could have taken His life yet because of our sin He 
is there on the cross giving a spotless life in payment 
for our sin’s penalty. He is giving Himself. He 
arose to give us life. He sits at the right hand of 
God now with that wonderful body which came out 
of death and is praying and working for us. Still 
giving for us! This even was not enough, but He 
wanted that we should have Him with us to work 
for us and in us and through us. He to be our pro¬ 
vider and comforter. So He sends the Holy Ghost 
to abide with us and be in us. But this blessed Spirit 
cannot operate within unless our will is given over, 
unless we are yielded. So, like two gases, when we 
reach the place where we are willing to say “not I, 
but Christ. I want only His will,” He, the Spirit, 
in His fullness combines with us and the glow of 
a holy fire springs up within the heart. 

A cold heart is an unyielded heart. We are speak¬ 
ing within the language of truth when we talk about 
ice-box churches. I have been in them. I have 
caught the temperature of unyieldedness over the 
phone some twenty degrees below zero. I have been 
in hot churches preaching to a crowd of wholly 
yielded hearts and oh the heat. What is worse than 
for the world to come against a cold Christian? It 
is worse than a cold pan cake. Who wants to eat 
one of them ? Think of having to see a stack of them 
or in other words a pew or church full. It’s enough 
to give a man chills and fever. But oh, those lovely 
hot hearted ones with butter and honey all over 


80 


FIRE ALSO 


their souls. They make the world hungry to know 
Jesus, smacking their lips in joy and satisfaction in 
His presence. Oh, the joy of the fire of these hot 
yielded hearts. 

The Fire Place 

Every church ought to be a fire place; a cheerful 
fire spot. The center of activity in Rome was the 
fire spot in the temple to Vesta. When that fire went 
out all business in Rome stopped for they believed 
the relations between earth and heaven had been 
broken. Oh, that any soul here out of whom the fire 
has gone might believe the same thing. Stop all 
business. Shut yourself in your room. Yield, oh, 
yield to His yielded heart, and you may have the 
“Holy Ghost and Fire.” 

The Greeks sent fire from their center with all 
their new colonies that went forth from them. That 
is the only way to colonize this world for Christ. 
The greatest need to-day of the churches and mission 
fields is more fire. Oh, the power of a hot heart. 
That is the only way the early church colonized. 
They were having a bonfire of blessing one day at 
Antioch, it was a great prayer meeting, “Barnabas 
and Simeon Lucuis, Manaen and Saul. As they min¬ 
istered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 
Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work where- 
unto I have called them. So they went forth by the 
Holy Ghost.” That’s the way God colonizes. Oh, 
for more prayed out, fire-carrying workers. 


81 


FIRE ALSO 

Fires of Condemnation 

Fire has been very prominent in God’s dealings 
with men and is yet to be more prominent. The Bi¬ 
ble is very plain in its teaching of condemning sin 
with fire, and this real fire. Sodom and Gomorrah 
perished with actual fire from the Lord. 

Jesus said, “I say unto you that whosoever look- 
eth on a woman to lust after her hath committed 
adultery with her already in heart. And if thy right 
eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: 
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members 
should perish and not that thy whole body should be 
cast into Gehenna fire.” Again hear God’s words 
for fire condemning sin. “Whosoever was not found 
written in the Lamb’s Book of Life was cast into the 
lake of fire.” Yes, there is a consuming fire for sin. 

Manifestation 

God manifested Himself in the display of fire as a 
symbol of Himself and to show His approval at 
times. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush. 
How beautiful this looks to us looking back on it 
from what we know of God to-day. He is fire to us 
lighting and warming, but not consuming for Jesus 
went through the consuming fire of death for us. He 
is light to us. For the first 200 years after Christ, the 
Christians refused to use light in their worship to 
God. Just see how religions that have a false fire 
use lights in their church services in our day. One 


82 


FIRE ALSO 


of the old saints wrote in the early centuries this: 
“They kindle lights as to One who is in darkness. 
Can he be sane who offers lamps and candles to the 
‘Father of Lights’?” 

God’s presence in the temple was designated by 
the “Shekinah” a glorious light within the holy of 
holies. Above the tabernacle God’s presence rested 
every night in a Pillar of fire. 

Purification 

We are to stand the fire test. Every man’s work 
shall be tested by God’s fire. “The fire shall try every 
man’s work of what sort it is,” saith God. If your 
works are wrought as your heart is entirely yielded 
and the fire burns from your union with His will, 
your works will abide, but that which is tainted with 
pride, and self-will and self-ambition must go as the 
flames of God’s fire touch it. He asks us a grave 
question in these days. “But who may abide the 
day of His coming? And who shall stand when He 
appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire.” 

Oh, that it now from heaven might fall 
And all my dross consume, 

Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee I call; 

Spirit of burning, come. 

Refining fire go through my heart, 

Illuminate my soul: 

Scatter Thy life through every part. 

And sanctify the whole. 


SERMON NO. 8 


COME TO DINNER! 


COME TO DINNER! 


HE great supper is ready! Why does not the 
Host bid the guests be seated and begin to 
divide among them the succulent viands of 
His victory? 

This message is written to burn this question 
home, and I use as a text what I think is the answer 
of the Holy Spirit in Luke 14:23. “And the Lord 
said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and 
hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house 
may be filled. ,, 

Jesus used these words as He spake the parable of 
the Great Supper. 

He used them in answer to the remark of one of 
the guests seated around the table, where He had 
been invited to take Sunday dinner by one of the 
chiefs of the Pharisees. He had taken the oppor¬ 
tunity which this Sunday dinner offered to tell folks 
how to give a feast. What a wonderful opportunity 
there is around the table these days to talk to people 
about the Lord and the feast that He has spread! 

His remarks at this time were very hard on His 
host, but all of God’s words are a two-edged sword 
of conviction and condemnation to those who are 
not His sheep, and they are sharp also to prune those 



86 COME TO DINNER! 

who are branches in His great vine, that we may bear 

more fruit. 

He said to His host, “When thou makest a feast 
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and 
thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense 
thee. For thou shalt be recompensed at the resur¬ 
rection of the just.” 

A Feast of Grace 

Is it any wonder then, that after the announce¬ 
ment of this new kind of feast, this feast of grace 
which God offers to lost sinners who can never pay 
it back—is it any wonder, I say—that one of the 
guests said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in 
the kingdom of God” ? 

Jesus’ reply to this guest’s remark brings forth the 
wonderful parable of the great supper: God’s table 
of grace spread for the unlovely, the unworthy, the 
maimed, the halt and the blind. They may come 
and have free access to the gift of everlasting life. 

An Urgent Command 

But listen! After the story of the supper there 
rings out the urgent command of the Host to His 
servants. These are the words—let them burn them¬ 
selves into our souls—“Compel them to come in.” 

Go out into the highways, 

Compel them to come in. 

A feast of life is offered, 

And cleansing from all sin. 


COMB TO DINNER! 


87 


Chorus 

Compel them to come in, 

Compel them to come in. 

With Holy Ghost enduement, 

Compel them to come in. 

A Holy Ghost enduement 
Is now our right to claim; 

The saints of old received it, 

And we may have the same. 

We must obey His order, 

We dare not say Him nay. 

He furnishes the unction 
And tells us what to say. 

Divine Equipment 

Thank God we don’t have to rely upon human 
compelling power, but upon a Divine enduement of 
compassion. Only this sort of compassion can com¬ 
pel them to come in. Oh, for a hunger for souls 
fresh from the heart of Jesus to fall upon our hearts ! 

Why should we compel them to come in ? FIRST, 
let me answer, because it is His command who has 
every right to command us. It is the blessed lips of 
Jesus that said, “Compel them to come in.” 

A Great Undertaking 

This is a staggering undertaking—to compel them 
to come in from the highways and the hedges of this 
great world with its many climates, its many lan¬ 
guages, its many religions, its much darkness; and 
you and I have a right to stagger and fall back, 


88 


COMB TO DINNER! 


crying, “I cannot undertake this. I cannot obey the 
order in my natural self.” And we should fall back 
and say it. We have no right to trust our own 
equipment in this, the Lord’s program. How dare 
we for a moment trust our ability! 

But He says in the same breath with the com¬ 
mand, “But ye shall receive power after that the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you.” God offers us His 
best, the third person of the adorable Trinity, to 
complete this task. 

Your Best? 

I often wonder how many men have really faced 
God and said to Him, “I have done my best to obey 
this command.” When I see what mighty tasks 
men are doing in the natural these days, 1 am over¬ 
come with a burning desire to carry out my Lord’s 
orders, and I know that your hearts are being 
touched to move out and obey Him. 

But, oh, beloved, we haven’t begun to put in even 
our best, let alone His best, into this great task. I 
have been thinking this week of a mighty task (what 
one would think was almost an impossible task), 
that has yet been accomplished in a very short time 
in connection with the great world war. 

A Commercial Emergency 

On January 15, 1915, J. Pierpont Morgan & Co. 
accepted the task of becoming purchasing and fiscal 
agents of the British and French governments. To 


COME TO DINNER! 


89 


date this one firm has spent over three billions of 
dollars in this country for merchandise and muni¬ 
tions ; they have raised loan money for the allies 
amounting to over two and three-quarter billions of 
dollars; they have imported into America over one 
billion dollars’ worth of gold. 

Many American securities were held by foreign 
financiers until the time of the war and this company 
has been called upon to find American financiers who 
would take over these securities to the amount of 
nearly three billions of dollars, so as to let the cash 
go to the allies in their own land. 

This tremendous thing has been done by the 
appointment of one big man to have charge of the 
whole affair, and has gone forward without a word 
of scandal or criticism or the disorganization of 
American business, or clogs in the channels of trade. 

Doing the Impossible 

Just pause for a moment to think what this means 
This is what the world calls, “putting it over,” “com¬ 
ing across with a big thing.” Men said it could not 
be done, but the Morgan Co. looked the field over 
and selected Edward R. Stettinius. 

This man was not in their employ when they 
picked him. He was not even a member of their 
firm. Beside all this, he was doing something very 
far different when they called him to this great 
undertaking; they called him from the presidency 
of the Diamond Match Company. 


90 


COME TO DINNEK! 


It became this man’s business to buy all the mer¬ 
chandise and munitions, all clothing, machinery, 
food, powder; and this with all the haste that the 
terrific war demanded. 

Look a little further at the great task. There 
were not munition houses enough in America to sup¬ 
ply even a fraction of the amount that was needed. 
The kind of clothing, the kind of food, the kind of 
supplies as specified by the allied governments, were 
not in our possession in this country; all these must 
be made, and they must be made by men who never 
had made such things. 

Efficient Men Needed 

Mr. Stettinius decided some very broad principles 
in his mind at once. He said to himself that ninety- 
seven and one-half per cent of his problem must be 
solved by men who were already efficient at some¬ 
thing, so he gave the orders for munition to men who 
were making a success in their present manufactur¬ 
ing business, even though they had never made any¬ 
thing like ammunition. 

He awarded a contract for one hundred million 
dollars’ worth of material to a company that had 
no buildings, machinery or tools for munitions, and 
had no men who were munition makers; but, because 
they were men who were used to undertaking tasks 
without asking questions, they hustled up their 
houses and machinery and men, and shipped their 
munitions fifteen days before the time agreed upon in 


COME TO % DINNER! 91 

their contract; and have never been subjected for a 
moment to any criticism. 

One car firm he persuaded to make shells. They 
are now making five million dollars’ worth a month. 
The purchases averaged under Mr. Stettinius ten 
million dollars a day. 

Mr. Stettinius drew around him one hundred and 
five selected engineers and commercial experts who 
never watched the clock. They were called “the 
S. O. S. crowd,” meaning “Slaves of Stettinius.” 
Nine o’clock at night saw them all in their offices. 
The task was a great one and they were throwing 
themselves into it. 

Playing with the Task 

Such a record as this, my dear friends, makes me 
feel that Christian men and women to-day in the 
large majority are absolutely playing with this task 
of compelling men and women to come in. Ask God 
quietly if you have ever given Him your full self. 
Look again at what it means to really be conse¬ 
crated. 

I am not stirring you now to self-effort, but to 
show that if men in the natural'can undertake such 
tasks, what ought the children of God to undertake 
in the power and equipment of the Holy Ghost? 

The Task of the Ages 

Oh, the world must be evangelized. Our order is, 
“To the highways and hedges.” He has the method. 


92 


COME TO DINNER! 


Let our hearts say, “The task must be done, and by 
God’s grace it will be done.” 

Jesus is calling us in our day to the supreme task 
of the ages, and takes us into the firm and furnishes 
us the equipment. He calls us; He commands us 
to go and compel them to come in. We can—will 
we obey His orders? 

We Can If We Will 

The second reason for our compelling them to 
come in, is a very simple one. It is this; we can if 
we will. It is a perfect marvel to me that men can 
so closely follow their desires. It has been my ob¬ 
servation that men are generally found doing about 
what they want to do. Of course this cannot be 
pushed to a terrific extreme, but in the large most 
folks are doing about what they want to do. 

For Their Country 

Look how the wills of the men at the Battle of 
Verdun served them for their country’s sake. 

Those Frenchmen who held the first line of 
trenches through those awful onslaughts were in 
their trenches eight days and eight nights without 
sleep, fighting, fighting, fighting constantly. The 
weather was bitterly cold, and many of them were 
standing in water to their knees. 

The first day they had two plates of soup, the sec¬ 
ond day they had two plates of soup, the third day 
they had one plate of soup and one meal; then the 


COMB TO DINNER! 


93 


fourth day they got two meals. The days went 
on thus—eight days, eight nights, fighting, fighting, 
fighting, fighting. 

When the awful ordeal was over (that is, when the 
new troops had come up to relieve them from be¬ 
hind) without saying a word, the fighters who had 
been there through the eight days and nights sim¬ 
ply walked to the rear and threw themselves full 
length on the ground, falling immediately into a deep 
sleep with their wet clothes frozen on them. The re¬ 
enforcing troops took their blankets, threw them 
over the exhausted bodies, and left them to sleep on. 

Not one case of pneumonia was reported. Physi¬ 
cians would have said it could not be done, but it 
was done. 

To the Battle! 

Oh, I do not call you to swell your power and 
self-effort; but I do ask, have you ever thrown your¬ 
self, literally thrown yourself (and thrown yourself 
in the power of God) into this battle now going on 
between hell and heaven? You can if you will; 
will you? 

Oh, wait on Him. Catch the vision, get the 
equipment, heed the command, and plunge into the 
hedges! 

The Time Is Short 

In the third place, we should compel them to 
come in because the time is very short. The supper 
has been prepared a very long time, and many have 


94 


COME TO DINNER! 


already taken advantage of this supper and their 
seats are reserved around the table. 

He said, “Go, that My house may be filled.” That 
is why He does not bid the guests to be seated. 
There are others. 

We must evangelize the world. Many millions 
have never had the invitation; but the doors be¬ 
tween us and those millions have been torn down, 
that in other days would have kept the invitation 
out; and there is left no excuse if we in this genera¬ 
tion do not go and compel them to come in. 

Even in this awful year of war, God is increasing 
the gifts to missions. Beloved, you need but to take 
a slight glance and you will see that Jesus is point¬ 
ing and saying, “Out, out, out into the dark! Com¬ 
pel them to come in !!” 

Signs of His Coming 

The signs of His soon coming multiply with eve¬ 
ry issue of the newspapers. The terrible Turk is on 
his way out and off of the map, as God has pre¬ 
dicted. He is the Bible “River of Euphrates” that 
must be dried up to make way for the kings of the 
East, the Jews, God’s chosen people. Bagdad has 
fallen. Jerusalem and Bethlehem have fallen before 
the Allies. The Jew is coming to his own. 

Go quickly then; the time is short, and compel 
them to come in. He is blasting the way. Follow 
up quickly as good infantry men, taking the open- 


COMB TO DINNER! 95 

ings made by His big long range guns of Provi¬ 
dence. The barrage fire (may I call it) is falling 
before us, blasting the way. Get ready for this last 
great forward movement that is coming. Into the 
whitened harvest fields of earth Jesus is ready to 
make one last great final charge. 

The doors are down, the roads are open, and into 
the hedges we must plunge. Are you ready? 

A Crown to Be Won 

The last reason for our going to compel them to 
come in is this: There is a crown for our service 
and fidelity. You may have a bundle of sheaves to 
present to Him at His coming, for which He will 
give you a crown. 

Have you now a bundle of sheaves? We can pay 
nothing for salvation—it is a gift purchased by 
Him but we may serve for a crown. 

Laid Aside 

Listen to a tale of a dear old saint who lived in a 
grove, and owned a bubbling spring of water, bor¬ 
dering the roadside. The old saint knew his Lord, 
and walked and talked with Him as the days of his 
earthly life went by. 

He was crippled and misshapen, and unfit for any 
earthly toil requiring physical strength; so he sat 
the weary days through in his home in the grove. 

Years had passed since first he found the Lord, 


96 


COME' TO DINNER! 


and then in later years came a deep desire to go out 
into the world to tell the lost of Jesus. Bitter, bit¬ 
ter tears of disappointment streamed down his face, 
as the awful realization of his weak physical condi¬ 
tion swept over him, together with the vision. He 
struggled in prayer. He felt he would die if he 
could not go. 

Guidance 

Then in a lovely night of prayer the Spirit lifted 
the load, saying, “Stay, stay by the road, there are 
many sinners there.” 

The old saint had the spring dug out by the side 
of the road, and with rock selected from the brook, 
built up the walls around the side and hung a dip¬ 
per to a chain. Behind the spring he had a rustic 
seat circled temptingly. Then he spent a little bit 
more of his small allowance, to hire a carpenter to 
move his little house for him, close to the spring 
and the rustic seat. With his own hands he wai 
able to plant the flowers and trim the shrubs. 

A Service of Love 

Seated on the old seat made for him, he greet¬ 
ed the passersby. When they turned aside to drink 
he engaged them in conversation, and offered them 
the comfortable rustic seat in the shade. 

Here he told them of Jesus, 

The story that never grows old. 

Here he gathered a harvest, 

Beautiful sheaves of gold. 


COME TO DINNER! 


97 


A great and mighty speaker had passed that 
way many times as the years had gone by, and 
looked forward with delight to a chat at the road¬ 
side with the old saint. He often would stay over 
night in the little shack. 

Going Home 

It was on a summer afternoon, that the great 
speaker passed that way and found the old saint 
not at the roadside, but in his bed. That night, 
as the speaker lay sleeping in his comfortable bed 
provided by the old saint, this crippled, seeming¬ 
ly useless child of Jesus was taken to heaven. 

The speaker awoke in the night to behold a vi¬ 
sion : men and women, boys and girls, one by one, 
enter the door of the little shack, pass to the side 
of the old saint lying in his coffin, burst into tears, 
crying out, “He led me to Jesus,” and then go 
away. 

All night they came and went and came and 
went. The speaker could not stop nor speak to 
the procession; some strange power held him. He 
was only allowed to gaze as the procession passed. 

Before the Throne 

At last the procession came to an end, and the 
grey streaks of dawn ran up the sky, when sud¬ 
denly the room was a blaze of glory; the heavens 
were opened, and the old saint was changed, 


98 


COME' TO DINNER! 


straightened, glorified and standing before the 
throne. 

The speaker heard him say, “Blessed Lord, bless¬ 
ed Lord, I longed to go out in the world for Thee 
and gather precious souls; but you told me to stay. 
I have stayed, blessed Lord, and now I come before 
Thee empty handed. I have no crown; I could nev¬ 
er make a speech; I could not write a book; I could 
not gather the audiences together; I could not seek 
the men.” 

“No crown?” asked the Master. 

“No,” said the old saint. 

Precious Jewels 

“But,” cried the Master in voice that rippled like 
the glorious waters, “Thou soon shalt have. Give 
Me those jewels in thy hands, and all those diamonds 
and pearls hanging upon thy clothes.” 

The old saint was dumb with surprise, as he looked 
at his clothes and into his hands. The jewels hung 
there thick upon his chest, and his hands were filled 
with gorgeous sparkling gems. 

“How did I get these?” he cried, in glorious sur¬ 
prise. 

A Coronation 

“These, My blessed one,” said the Master, “are 
made from the tears of those thou hast told of Me, 
and led to accept Me as their Saviour. Many tears 
ran : nto thy hands as those whom thou hast broughl 


COME TO DINNER! 


99 


in from the highways and hedges leaned over thy 
coffin; and thy hands, beloved, are full. Thou hast 
been faithful over a few things ; here, take thy crown, 
I will make thee ruler over many things.” 

The light vanished. The great speaker dropped to 
his knees, and the great applauding audiences saw 
him in his fleshly efforts no more; but out into the 
highways and hedges, with tear-stained cheek, he 
pled with men. 

He had seen a coronation, and he went out to com¬ 
pel them to come in. 

He found them in their places of business. He 
went to them in the shops. He met them on the 
street. He planned in prayer with the Spirit for 
engagements that would give the opportunity of 
leading them to salvation. His sermons burned with 
the fire of God’s compassion. But, oh, as a result 
he heard men say, “Yes, I will go to the feast.” 
Come! Oh, Come! Let us arise in Holy Ghost en- 
duement and run to the highways and hedges. On 
your way, then, crying, “Come to dinner.” We wii* 
meet when His house i filled around the table. 


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